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Science/Tech See other Science/Tech Articles Title: Chinooks can ease pain, research shows Dr. Cory Toth, left, checks reflexes of patient Val ShawLewis at Calgary's Health Sciences Building Wednesday. Photograph by: Grant Black, Calgary Herald, Calgary Herald While migraine sufferers may dread the arrival of Calgary's chinook winds, new research shows the weather event might actually help alleviate other types of pain. A neurosciences professor with the University of Calgary found that patients who suffer neuropathic pain, which can include pinched nerves, sciatica or nerve pain associated with diabetes, are 1.8 times as likely to have relief on a chinook day compared to a non-chinook day. And those who say they're feeling pain may only be feeling it as a result of the anxiety around thinking the chinook will make things worse. Dr. Cory Toth, research director of the Calgary Chronic Pain Centre Clinic, tracked close to 100 pain sufferers over four years. "Many patients had complained their pain worsened during changes in Calgary weather, particularly during chinooks," Toth said. Patients who participated were told researchers were looking for different factors that might affect their pain. The factors included exercise, diet, mood, anxiety levels and weather conditions. Toth explained that what was most unusual was patients' perceptions, with 63 per cent saying chinooks worsened their pain, 22 per cent reporting no effect and 15 per cent saying they alleviated their pain. But when using meteorological data to mark actual chinook days, and then comparing it to patient diaries, Toth found patients were 1.8 times as likely to have had relief from neuropathic pain on a chinook day compared to any non-chinook day. "Our study suggests chinooks may have unfairly gotten a bad rap among neuropathic pain sufferers," Toth said. "Many patients should welcome chinooks instead of dreading them." Val Shaw-Lewis, who has suffered with a rare type of neuropathy which causes pain and numbness in her feet, legs, hands and arms, said weather does affect her condition. "Some nights before I go to bed, my legs and feet feel like they're encased in cement." Although she believes some patients may feel less pain in a chinook, she said she usually feels best when it's very cold. Toth emphasized his study did not include patients who suffer from migraines, which have been concluded by several studies to be made worse by chinooks, he explained, because of changes in barometric pressure. eferguson@calgaryherald.com Poster Comment: Neurological effects likely due to absence of negative ions in these winds from the south. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
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